The Guardian
THE BUSH/BLAIR rhetoric cannot even be supported by their own intelligence.
Baghdad bombings kill 38
Agencies
Thursday June 23, 2005
A wounded man is rushed to hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Sabah Arar/AFP/Getty
At least 38 people were killed in eight Baghdad car bombings over a 12-hour period, police said today.
Three of the blasts happened at dawn, killing 15 people in a central Baghdad shopping district. The explosions, in the Karrada area, targeted a Shia mosque, a police patrol, and a public bath house.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1512831,00.html
Iraq creating new breed of jihadists, says CIA
Ewen MacAskill, Duncan Campbell and Richard Norton-Taylor
Thursday June 23, 2005
The Guardian
The war in Iraq is creating a new breed of Islamic jihadists who could go on to destabilise other countries, according to a CIA report.
The CIA believes Iraq to be potentially worse than Afghanistan, which produced thousands of jihadists in the 1980s and 1990s. Many of the recruits to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida had fought in Afghanistan.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1512597,00.html
Blinded by the light at the end of the tunnel
The American public is increasingly disillusioned by the Iraq war, and Bush's triumphalism only makes things worse
Sidney Blumenthal
Thursday June 23, 2005
The Guardian
On June 21, network news reported that the Pentagon had claimed that 47 enemy operatives had been killed in Operation Spear in western Iraq. Last month, the Pentagon declared 125 had been killed in Operation Matador, near the Syrian border. "We don't do body counts on other people," Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defence, stated in November 2003.
...Bush's Iraq syndrome is a reinvention of Lyndon Johnson's Vietnam syndrome. In December 1967, Walt Rostow, LBJ's national security adviser, famously declared about the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese: "Their casualties are going up at a rate they cannot sustain ... I see light at the end of the tunnel." The official invitation to the New Year's Eve party at the US embassy in Saigon read: "Come see the light at the end of the tunnel." The Tet offensive struck a month later.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1512412,00.html
The story of Africa through the lives of 10 children born in 2005
Will the world keep its promises to them? And what can you do?
June 21 2005: The United Nations has set ambitious goals for development - poverty, health and education - by 2015. If these mean anything, Africa's children will be leading better lives. The decisions made by the G8 leaders in Gleneagles next month will shape the life chances of a generation.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/hearafrica05/10babies/0,16105,1511167,00.html
The Boston Globe
Rumsfeld rejects notion Iraq war is a 'quagmire'
By Will Dunham June 23, 2005
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday rejected a senator's assertion the Iraq war had become a quagmire, but warned Iraq's government not to delay political developments such as drafting a constitution.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/06/23/rumsfeld_rejects_notion_iraq_war_is_a_quagmire/
French luxury store apologizes to Oprah
Television talk show host Oprah Winfrey addresses reporters as part of the Television Critics Association Press Tour on Jan. 23, 2005, in the Universal City section of Los Angeles. The luxury store Hermes has apologized to Winfrey for turning her away from one of its Paris boutiques on June 14, 2005, saying it was closed for a public relations event when she came knocking. (AP Photo/Ric Francis)
June 23, 2005
PARIS --The luxury store Hermes has apologized to Oprah Winfrey for turning her away from one of its Paris boutiques last week, saying it was closed for a public relations event when she came knocking.
http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2005/06/23/french_luxury_store_apologizes_to_oprah/
Romney says wife's health key factor as he weighs future
By Theo Emery, Associated Press Writer June 23, 2005
BOSTON --Gov. Mitt Romney, who's acknowledged that he's considering a presidential run, said his wife's health is a key factor as he decides his political future.
"Any reversal of her good health would almost certainly mean getting out of public office. I wouldn't run for another campaign, almost certainly," Romney said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/06/23/romney_says_wifes_health_key_factor_as_he_weighs_future/
Hospitals cut costs for uninsured
2 networks plan discounts of 15-50%
By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff June 23, 2005
Two of the state's largest hospital networks, Partners HealthCare and UMass Memorial Health Care, will no longer routinely charge uninsured patients full ''sticker price" for medical care, but instead will offer 15 to 50 percent discounts, in some cases as much as the mark-downs large health insurers receive.
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/06/23/hospitals_cut_costs_for_uninsured/
Greenspan, Snow warn against China sanction
By Glenn Somerville June 23, 2005
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Trade sanctions against China won't protect U.S. jobs, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Thursday, and he joined with Treasury Secretary John Snow in saying sanctions might backfire.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/06/23/greenspan_snow_warn_on_china_sanction_1119545030/
Jerusalem to ban annual gay pride parade
An Israeli soldier holds a rainbow-colored flag as hundreds of people participate in a gay pride parade in downtown Jerusalem in this photo from Thursday June 3, 2004. Jerusalem City Hall on Thursday, June 23, 2005 announced it would not allow the planned annual gay pride parade to go ahead next week, saying the march would offend many of the holy city's residents and set off unrest. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
By Gavin Rabinowitz, Associated Press Writer June 23, 2005
JERUSALEM --Jerusalem officials said Thursday they will ban the annual gay pride parade set for next week, claiming the march would offend many of the holy city's residents.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/06/23/jerusalem_to_ban_annual_gay_pride_parade/
The Arab News
Riyadh Pledges $1bn for Iraq Reconstruction
Abdullah Mustafa, Arab News
BRUSSELS, 23 June 2005 — Saudi Arabia yesterday emphasized its vision of an independent and unified Iraq and said it would extend $1 billion in the form of soft loans for the reconstruction of the war-torn country.
Addressing an international conference here, attended by over 80 governments and international institutions, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said Riyadh was also ready to write off part of Iraq’s debt burden.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=65795&d=23&m=6&y=2005
Israel Revives Assassination Policy
Hisham Abu Taha, Arab News
JERUSALEM, 23 June 2005 — Israel has resumed an assassination policy against Islamic Jihad militants, as Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas tried to rally international support yesterday after coming away with no tangible results from a summit with Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Abbas called American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Egypt President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan King Abdallah soon after the summit, as the Palestinians voiced exasperation over the Israeli premier’s hard-line attitude.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=65796&d=23&m=6&y=2005&pix=world.jpg&category=World
US Was Big Spender in Days Before Iraq Handover
Reuters
WASHINGTON, 23 June 2005 — The United States handed out nearly $20 billion of Iraq’s funds, with a rush to spend billions in the final days before transferring power to the Iraqis nearly a year ago, a report said on Tuesday.
The report, by Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman of California, said in the week before the hand-over on June 28, 2004, the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority ordered the urgent delivery of more than $4 billion in Iraqi funds from the US Federal Reserve in New York.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=65807&d=23&m=6&y=2005&pix=world.jpg&category=World
Iraqi Militants Release Filipino Accountant After 7 Months in Captivity
Julie Javellana-Santos, Arab News
MANILA, 23 June 2005 — Filipino accountant Roberto Tarongoy has finally been released after more than half a year as a captive of a militant group in Iraq.
Tarongoy was interviewed live over a national news program while at the Philippine Embassy in Iraq waiting for his flight to Manila.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=65792&d=23&m=6&y=2005&pix=world.jpg&category=World
US Designs to Reshape ME ‘No Longer Secret’: Syria
Agence France Presse
DAMASCUS/BEIRUT, 23 June 2005 — Syria’s state-run radio yesterday lashed out at US accusations of Syrian involvement in a Lebanese politician’s murder and said Washington’s designs to reshape the Middle East were no longer a secret. “The American-Israeli objective is no longer a secret,” said Damascus Radio. “All the countries and peoples, Arabs and foreigners, have found out the scope of the plan drawn up for the region,” it said.
“The statements made by US officials, especially those of (Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice making accusations against Syria ... no longer fool anyone,” the radio said in its daily commentary.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=65797&d=23&m=6&y=2005&pix=world.jpg&category=World
Iran Moderates Fan ‘Extremist’ Fears to Swing Vote
Stuart Williams, Agence France Presse
TEHRAN, 23 June 2005 — The camp of moderate cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani made a last-ditch effort yesterday to sway undecided voters in Iran’s tense presidential election, saying his rival was a reactionary extremist bent on overturning reform. With the outcome of Friday’s vote too close to call, Rafsanjani and ultra-conservative Tehran Mayor Mahmood Ahmadinejad had one last day of legal campaigning to swing one of the most crucial elections in the Islamic republic’s history.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=65817&d=23&m=6&y=2005&pix=world.jpg&category=World
Pakistan Denies Violating Bus Agreement
Agence France Presse
ISLAMABAD/SRINAGAR, 23 June 2005 — Islamabad yesterday dismissed New Delhi’s complaints that a visit by moderate separatists from Indian Kashmir to Pakistan violated a travel agreement on a new bus service across the Himalayan region.
“We saw the visit as part of the peace process between Pakistan and India,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani said, rejecting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s criticism.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=65819&d=23&m=6&y=2005&pix=world.jpg&category=World
Mukhtaran Mai toGet Back Passport
Huma Aamir Malik, Arab News
ISLAMABAD, 23 June 2005 — Pakistan government has agreed to return passport to gang rape victim, Mukhtaran Mai, who won world acclaim for her pursuit of justice, sources said.
The government has already lifted a controversial ban on Mukhtaran leaving the country. Pakistan had slapped the travel ban on Mukhtaran, prompting fresh international outrage.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=65821&d=23&m=6&y=2005&pix=world.jpg&category=World
Crude Oil Rates
22 June 2005
$ per barrel
Brent
56.58
US Oil
58.09
Los Angeles Times
Ex-Klansman Gets 60 Years for 1964 Civil Rights Killings
Edgar Ray Killen, 80, gets the maximum penalty for the manslaughter of three men.
By Michael Muskal, Times Staff Writer
PHILADELPHIA, Miss. -- Edgar Ray Killen received the maximum sentence this morning, three consecutive 20-year terms, for the killings of three civil rights workers in 1964.
Wearing a yellow jail jumpsuit and sitting in a wheelchair, the 80-year-old former Ku Klux Klansman reacted without emotion as Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon effectively sentenced the preacher to spend the rest of his life in prison.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-062305killen_lat,0,47493.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Wildfires Destroy 7 Homes, Burn 3,000 Acres
By Susana Enriquez and Lance Pugmire, Times Staff Writers
MORONGO VALLEY, Calif. -- The wildfires in Southern California that have destroyed seven structures and blackened the California desert subsided today, with officials hopeful that the blazes can be curbed.
Using satellite imagery, officials scaled back earlier estimates and reported 3,022 acres burned.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-062305fires_lat,0,3264126.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Many in Brazil See Their Amazon as a Jungle of Foreign Intrigue
Suspicions run wild that 'hegemonic' powers like the U.S. have designs on the vast, rich region.
By Henry Chu, Times Staff Writer
BELEM, Brazil — Afghanistan was the first to fall. Iraq, with all that oil, was next. And Socorro Leite says she has a fair idea of what else lies in the sights of the American imperialists.
"Soon," she warns, "their target will be the Amazon."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-paranoia23jun23,0,3071305.story?coll=la-home-world
Anglicans May Target Firms Seen as Anti-Palestinian
A plan calls for churches to urge companies in their investment portfolios to end activities that support the Israeli occupation.
By Sarah Price Brown, Times Staff Writer
LONDON — The worldwide association of Anglican churches will consider a controversial report Friday that calls for companies in its investment portfolios to drop any business activity supporting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
The Anglican Consultative Council, the association's policymaking body, will discuss at its 10-day meeting underway in Nottingham, England, whether to recommend the proposal to the Anglican Communion. The communion comprises 77 million members belonging to the Church of England, the U.S. Episcopal Church and three dozen related churches.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-anglicans23jun23,0,649940.story?coll=la-home-world
Vietnam News
Party leader addresses concerns
(23-06-2005)
Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh meets with resident of Cau Giay District, Ha Noi. — VNA/VNS Photo Dinh Xuan Tuan
HA NOI —The hardest but most necessary element in the struggle against corruption is teaching people how to prevent it, said Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh yesterday.
Raising awareness of corruption and graft will help avoid future corruption, bureaucracy, wastefulness and other negative phenomena, Manh told residents of Cau Giay District at a meeting organised by Ha Noi’s National Assembly delegation and the municipal Fatherland Front Committee.
http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=03POL230605
Talks, visit to US bodes well for bilateral co-operation: PM Khai
(23-06-2005)
PM Khai and US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez witness the signing of a contract for Vietnam Airlines’ purchase of four Boeing Dreamliner aircraft. — VNA/VNS Photo The Thuan
WASHINGTON — Talks between Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and President George W Bush are a positive sign of increasing bilateral co-operation, the PM told a US business group on Tuesday.
The talks also mean a future of equitable relations, respect for each other and co-operation for mutual interests, Khai said at a meeting that gathered representatives from US business sectors.
http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=02POL230605
South set for transportation overhaul
(23-06-2005)
HCM CITY — A series of major transportation facilities will be built in the southern region between now and 2010, including Viet Nam’s first metro system, according to a plan revealed by Minister of Transport Dao Dinh Binh.
An underground rail network which will link Ben Thanh in downtown HCM City to the city of Bien Hoa in Dong Nai province is estimated to cost around US$620 million, which will be generated from various sources, including government bond issues, Binh said at a press briefing in HCM City.
http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=12ECO230605
Govt policy to offer insured patients more medical benefits
(23-06-2005)
Nurses taking care of patients in Hong Giang Commune in Luc Ngan District of northern Bac Giang Province. — VNA/VNS Photo Dinh Na.
HCM CITY — Insured Vietnamese patients currently pay 20 per cent of medical treatment costs, with the remainder paid by the Viet Nam Social Insurance Agency. But the Government’s newly-issued health insurance policy, which takes effect July 1, will change that.
http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=03POP230605
Drinking water projects keep rural people safe
(22-06-2005)
Ethnic minority women collect clean water from a tap in K’Lip B Village in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai. — VNA/VNS Photo Sy Huynh
HA NOI — Over 40 million people residing in rural areas will have benefited by the end of this year from a national programme to supply safe drinking water, said National Centre for Safe Water and Rural Hygiene director Le Van Can.
Can said this result is the outcome of a national programme on rural water safety and hygiene, now in its seventh year.
http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=05SOC220605
Domestic tourism heats up the summer
(19-06-2005)
With prosperity comes leisure time, and more upscale Vietnamese are now shelling out the Dong for luxury vacations. Van Anh sits by the pool.
Ngo Thu Hang settles back in her armchair, gazing out at the white sandy beach of Sam Son in the central province of Thanh Hoa. Her husband and four-year-old son romp playfully at the water’s edge. Having arrived at Van Chai Resort a few days prior, the 38-year-old director of a private furniture design company says being close to the sea nourishes the imagination needed in her work.
http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=01SUN190605
New York Times
Greenspan: China Tariffs Won't Help U.S.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 23, 2005
Filed at 5:18 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned Congress on Thursday not to rush to impose punitive tariffs on imports from China, saying they would harm U.S. consumers and protect ''few if any American jobs.''
It marked Greenspan's most blunt assessment to date that currency-related legislation that has attracted support from two-thirds of the Senate would harm the U.S. economy by driving up prices for the Chinese products Americans crave.
He said a move toward protectionism in the world's largest economy could also unsettle global financial markets while doing little to protect jobs in this country.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Greenspan-China.html?hp&ex=1119585600&en=fca087b716eeefc5&ei=5094&partner=homepage
G.E. Revamps Businesses and Names 3 New Chiefs
By JENNIFER BAYOT
Published: June 23, 2005
The General Electric Company announced today that it would reorganize its 11 businesses into six broader units, in its largest sweep of changes since Jeffrey R. Immelt became chief executive in 2001.
The moves also reshuffled the next-to-highest tier of leadership at the company, bringing the appointment of three new vice chairmen as two executives announced their retirements as expected.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/23/business/23cnd-elec.html
World View of U.S. Improves Slightly, Except Among Muslims
By BRIAN KNOWLTON
International Herald Tribune
Published: June 23, 2005
The anti-Americanism that surged through much of the world over the American-led war in Iraq shows modest signs of abating, although distinctly negative views persist in the Muslim world, according to a major new international opinion poll.
The snapshot of world opinions emerged from a Pew Global Attitudes Survey of nearly 17,000 people in the United States and 15 other countries: Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Poland, Russia, Spain and Turkey.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/23/international/23cnd-poll.html
Air Force Academy Staff Found Promoting Religion
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: June 23, 2005
WASHINGTON, June 22 - An Air Force panel sent to investigate the religious climate at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs found evidence that officers and faculty members periodically used their positions to promote their Christian beliefs and failed to accommodate the religious needs of non-Christian cadets, its leader said Wednesday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/23/politics/23academy.html
Ford Plans to Cut 5% of Salaried Work Force
By JEREMY W. PETERS
Published: June 22, 2005
DETROIT, June 21 - The Ford Motor Company said Tuesday that it would cut 5 percent, or about 1,700, of its white-collar jobs in North America. It also said it would no longer give bonuses to managers or make matching contributions to the 401(k) plans of salaried employees.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/22/automobiles/22ford.html
Haaretz
Jewish officials pleased by Klansman's conviction
By Shlomo Shamir
NEW YORK - Senior Jewish officials in New York expressed satisfaction yesterday at this week's conviction of a one-time Ku Klux Klansman in the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers in Mississippi.
The jury convicted Edgar Ray Killen of manslaughter Tuesday, dismissing the more serious charge of murder. Killen, who is 80 and uses a wheelchair, was found guilty of planning the killings, carrying them out and hiding the bodies. Sentencing is set for today.
Killen's conviction is an act of justice and a reversal of inequality that has particular resonance for Jews and blacks in the United States, said Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the New York-based Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, which runs programs on black-Jewish relations.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/591190.html
Right-wing activists holed up in Gush Katif hotel
By Amos Harel and Yair Ettinger, Haaretz Correspondents
Right-wing activists residing in the Maoz Hayam Hotel, in Gush Katif, were holed up in the hotel on Thursday night, fearing that security forces would enter in the middle of the night and evacuate them from the site.
Military and police sources refused to confirm that an operation was planned for late Thursday night.
The fact that activists were residing in the hotel was raised in recent days in talks among the high echelons of the defense establishment, due to growing concerns regarding the assembly of activists and a violent incident that occurred near the hotel recently.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/591617.html
Mofaz: PA may get security control of Bethlehem next week
By Amos Harel and Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondents
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Thursday told senior military officials to prepare for the likelihood that the West Bank city of Bethlehem will be transferred to Palestinian Authority security control next week.
"If things go as planned," Mofaz said, "we will also transfer Qalqilyah a week later."
Israel Defense Forces soldiers Thursday began evacuate outposts in the center of the West Bank city of Hebron, which were set up following the outbreak of the intifada in late 2000.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/591246.html
Steinitz wants Knesset okay for Egyptian troops on Gaza border
By Gideon Alon and Amos Harel, Haareetz Correspondents
Senior lawmakers, including the head of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yuval Steinitz, demanded Thursday that an agreement with Egypt for the deployment of 800 of its troops along the Gaza-Egypt border be approved by the Knesset.
The Egyptian policemen would be placed along the Philadelphi Route following Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in August.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/591602.html
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